Oakland parking ticket policy called 'not fair'

2 posh neighborhoods get warnings; rest get tickets

Published 4:00 am, Thursday, February 25, 2010

Oakland parking officers were ordered to avoid enforcing neighborhood parking violations in two of the city's wealthier neighborhoods but told to continue enforcing the same violations in the rest of the city, according to a city memo obtained by The Chronicle.

The July order is corroborated by interviews with three parking officers, who said they and their colleagues had complained about what they deemed a discriminatory practice since it began last summer - to no avail.

"It's not fair," said Shirnell Smith, 44, a parking officer for 22 years who has lived in Oakland for 24 years. Smith and the union representing parking officers said the policy has resulted in tickets being issued disproportionately to poor, black and Latino people.

The accusations cast a new light on one of Oakland's most contentious issues during the past year. Desperate for new revenue in a faltering economy, the City Council in June increased parking fines, meter rates, hours of enforcement and enforcement in neighborhoods.

The parking department created a new work shift to ticket neighborhoods at night. As part of that enforcement, parking officers ticketed residents for violations that had been a way of life for decades.

The most controversial tickets in residential neighborhoods were issued for parking on sidewalks and parking in the wrong direction. Residents told the city and The Chronicle that some streets are so narrow that emergency vehicles cannot get through unless they park like that.

Under pressure from businesses that complained the new parking rules were keeping customers away, the council in October rescinded only the meter enforcement from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., but left other elements in place.

However, unknown at the time, the parking department had deemed certain tony neighborhoods - Montclair and Broadway Terrace - off-limits from those two parking infractions. Parking violators in those neighborhoods were to receive "courtesy notices," according to a July 24 memo by Ronald Abernathy, a senior parking enforcement supervisor, sent to four parking supervisors and copied to parking Director Noel Pinto. The letter did not explain why the two neighborhoods were being spared from the tickets, which carry fines ranging from $40 to $100.

Numerous calls and e-mails to Pinto and City Administrator Dan Lindheim on Wednesday were not returned.

More narrow streets

On Outlook Avenue in East Oakland, residents told The Chronicle that parking officers blanketed a four-block stretch late last year. The streets are narrow there, too, as they are in Montclair.

Luther Couch, 43, has lived on the block for 41 years. He said that nearly everyone on his block has been sideswiped, so parking on the sidewalk is a must. Nonetheless, he got a $100 ticket late last year for parking on the sidewalk.

Doing one thing in Broadway Terrace and another in East Oakland is wrong, he said.

"To me, it's a double standard: The higher up you live and the more clout you think you have, they don't ticket you and sweep it under the rug," he said.

The three parking officers who spoke to The Chronicle said their internal complaints have gone nowhere, so they decided to make the issue public. They are doing so with the support of their union, SEIU Local 1021, which is holding a noon rally on the issue today in front of City Hall.

Risky move

The officers said voicing complaints is risky for most night-shift workers because they are part-timers who can be fired at-will.

"I have absolutely no rights within the city," said a part-time officer who asked to remain anonymous. "It's not right for us to only ticket in certain areas. The city of Oakland is one city."

Smith, a parking officer who works full-time and has union protection, said that part of the reason there was a desire to speak out was that parking officers have been harassed by citizens aware of the practice of not ticketing certain neighborhoods.

Smith said the officers have complied with the rule despite their disagreement with it.

"We're the only ones out there in the field dealing with this," said the third officer who also feared being named. "There are a lot of inconsistencies."

Smith said administrators need to be held accountable.

"We're taking the brunt of citizens' grief on this," said Smith. "Everyone needs to know this is happening."

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